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Pilot study into the chemical nature of organophosphate pesticide residues and the implications for urinary metabolite analysis

Project Code: T10018

01/03/2008

Health and Safety Lab (HSL)Jones, K ; Johnson, P; Garner, F

Dialkylphosphates have been extensively used in biological monitoring to assess exposure to organophosphate (OP) pesticides. Diet is assumed to be a significant source of environmental exposure to OP pesticides. However, metabolite levels in the general population indicate exposures far greater than predicted from diet. The possibility exists that the population consumes the less toxic degradation products of OP pesticides as a residue on food as well as intact OP pesticides. Biological monitoring of metabolites may therefore over-estimate the exposure to OP pesticides of the general population.